tom sherwood takes us inside a building that most of us will never step inside. >> reporter: from security doors using eye identification -- >> thank you. you have been identified. >> reporter: -- to water tanks for testing bullets, to walking into a morgue storage room with space for 200 refrigerated bodies, twice the old capacity. the new $210 million forensics headquarters, three years to construct, is a major improvement for crime and chemical analysis that has eluded the district for decades. >> the potential that this building gives to the district of columbia to increase, improve, and expand its ability to do forensic analysis, to solve crimes, is just enormous. >> three, two, one. >> reporter: it will take several more months for the building to be fully operational. residents were initially worried it might pose a potential hazard. >> initially folks were concerned because when mayor williams brought up the idea, it was not too far after 9/11. and so folks were naturally concerned that we might have agents in the air. >> when you walk by in our building, you don't need to get scar